How a Street Artist Secretly Painted an Urban-Scale Mural in Cairo

All over the world street artists have become famous by surreptitiously adding swabs of paint or wheatpaste to city walls. But the most remarkable thing about a new mural in Cairo is not only its size — it covers about 50 buildings — it’s that the artist managed to do it in a place that’s not known for encouraging creative expression.

The New York Times has a wonderful story about eL Seed, a Tunisian artist who transformed a forgotten corner of Cairo into a work of public art — creating what is potentially the largest artwork in the city. The mural honours Cairo’s rubbish collectors, many of whom live in the high-rises which are covered with a snippet of the piece. It’s only by standing on a nearby hillside that you can see the art in its entirety.

The piece itself is stunning, as are the artist’s intentions to uplift a marginalised community. But the amazing thing about the world we live in today is that you can see the entire story play out on eL Seed’s Instagram feed. [New York Times]